→ The team

Born in Milan but grown up in Malé (Trento), Samantha Cristoforetti is one of the six astronauts of the ESA 2009 selection, the Shenanigans.
Pilot of the Italian AirForce Samantha is going to be parte of the Expedtion 42/43 to the International Space Station; she was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009 and in July 2012 she was assigned to an Italian Space Agency ASI mission, called Futura. The date for the launch of Futura is set: Samantha is going to leave for space on Sunday the 23rd at 22:01 GMT from the Bajkonur cosmodrome. Read more

Anton was selected as a cosmonaut in 2003 after a career in the Russian Air Force, including flying the Mig-29 aircraft. Anton is a qualified parachuting instructor. He flew to the Station just two years before this Expedition during Expedition 29/30 and shared the outpost with ESA astronaut André Kuipers, among others.

Anton spent time outside the Station on a spacewalk in 2012 to move a crane and install new shielding.

Alexander Samokutyaev flew into space for the first time to the International Space Station as flight engineer on Expedition 27 and 28. His launch took place in April 2011 and coincided with the 50th anniversary Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering orbit of Earth. He has worked for more than six hours outside the Station, performing a variety of tasks on the Russian part of the complex. He performed a second spacewalk with Max Suarev during the first half Expedition 42.

Yelena Serova is the fourth Russian female cosmonaut to travel into space, 17 years after her predecessor Yelena Kondakova flew on Space Shuttle STS-84. Yelena Serova is an engineer and economist and joined the Roscosmos cosmonaut corps in 2011.

Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore is a NASA astronaut. He has a degree in electrical engineering, and has flown thousands of hours as a navy test pilot. He flew to the International Space Station on an 11-day Space Shuttle mission in November 2009. During the mission, the crew delivered two Express Logistics Carriers and about 13 tonnes of replacement parts for the Station.

He commanded the Station’s robotic arm during ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s spacewalk on 7 October 2014 and made his own sortie a week later.

Samantha’s other crewmate is also a fighter pilot in the air force. After an extensive career in the US Air Force, Terry joined the NASA astronaut corps in 2000. His first mission was to pilot Space ShuttleEndeavour to the International Space Station in 2010. The mission brought ESA’s Cupola window module and the outpost’s Tranquility life-support hub.